India phased its stock market down to T+1 settlement while Wall Street still ran T+2

Until recently, a share trade settled two business days after execution (T+2) almost everywhere: the eurozone moved from T+3 only in 2014, the US in 2017. Those two days are pure exposure — the buyer's money and the seller's shares are both locked, backing margin requirements, while default risk accumulates. The 2021 meme-stock frenzy showed regulators how much risk the gap carries.

India ran the cycle down instead of talking about it. Indian exchanges began moving scrips to T+1 in 2021, phasing in cohorts starting with blue chips, and completed the transition by early 2023 — the first large market where every trade settles one day after execution. The benefit is mechanical: less time for a counterparty to fail, less margin locked, more collateral released back into the market.

The move was sequenced, not improvised. Once T+1 ran smoothly, SEBI consulted in December 2023 on optional same-day (T+0) settlement, phased again — trades placed before 1:30 pm settled by 4:30 pm, with custodian-settled clients excluded from the first phase.

Shrink the settlement window, shrink the risk

Counterparty exposure is a function of time: halve the window, halve the risk — no behavior change required from traders.

Freed margin flows straight back into capital efficiency, so brokers and custodians had reasons to cooperate.

Phasing by scrip cohorts put operational load on small, liquid lists first, where failure is cheap and lessons transfer.

Moving first set the template: Canada, Mexico and the US adopted T+1 in May 2024, with the UK and EU following later.

Market plumbing does not need global consensus to move. Phasing one scrip cohort at a time de-risks a change bigger markets called impossible alone; the US followed a year later.

In March 2024 India became the first major market to offer optional T+0 same-day settlement, starting with 25 large-cap blue chips and beta-testing real-time settlement next. On May 27–28, 2024 Canada, Mexico and the US halved their cycles to T+1; Britain is targeting T+1 around 2027 and the EU is still studying the switch.